Performance Benchmarking of Large Aperture Parabolic Trough Solar Collector for Various Optical Errors and Geometrical Concentration Ratio

Abstract

Herein, the effect of the various errors associated with concentrator, receiver, and tracking unit has been investigated on the optical performance of the large aperture parabolic trough solar collector (PTSC). The various combinations of the PTSC aperture sizes with the commercially available receiver sizes are considered for the analysis. The best combinations are identified based on the receiver's availability and intercept factor of the collector configuration. The effects of both the random (slope and tracking error) and non‐random (receiver alignment) errors have been investigated. It is observed that the PTSC performance should not be predicted based on the geometrical concentration ratio alone, as the focal length, absorber diameter, and aperture size also affect the PTSC performance. The intercept factor of large aperture PTSC is marginally affected by the receiver alignment error as compared to 5.77 m aperture. The rightward and leftward receiver displacement has no effect on the intercept factor for all the PTSC configurations. The slope error drastically affects the flux distribution as a change in the slope error from 0 to 8 mrad, the peak local concentration ratio decreases from 62 to 47. There is a decrease in the intercept factor by 22%, including a tracking error up to 8 mrad.